--How indeed could men, whose
whole existence was passed in solitude and penance, and who never
conversed even among themselves, have been dangerous to those
turbulent spirits who had overturned the government and all the
religious institutions of their country!
In the portrait, the Abbe is dressed in the habit of the order, a
white gown and hood, and sitting with a book before him, in which he
appears to be writing; on the same table, before him, are a crucifix
and a skull. The following inscription is painted in one corner by the
artist:
"ARM'D. LE BOUTTHILLIER DE RANCE. S'R
SCAUANT. et celebre Abbe Reformateur De La Trappe.
Mort en 1700. a pres de 77 ans, et de 40 ans de la plus
austere penitence".
The Monastery of La Trappe is one of the most ancient Abbeys of the
order of Benedictins: it was established under the pontificate of
Innocent the Second, during the reign of Louis VII. in the year 1140,
by Rotrou, the second Count of Perche, and is said to have been built
to accomplish a vow, made in the peril of shipwreck. In commemoration
of this circumstance, the roof was made in the shape of the bottom of
a ship inverted. It was founded under the auspices of Saint Bernard,
the first Abbot of Clairvaux, the celebrated preacher in favour of
the Crusades. Many ages, however, had elapsed, since its first
institution, when the Father Abbot de Rance, the celebrated reformer
of his time, determined to become a member, whose singular history and
conversion was the subject of a poem by Monsieur Barthe.
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